Weekly Update - 15th May

In Literacy this week the children have read the story of ‘The Happiest Woodlouse’ by Dick King Smith. We have used the story as a stimulus for writing our own short stories, focusing on planning clear beginning, middle and end sections first. The children planned their stories using story mountains, so were able to use a mixture of pictures and captions to map out the character’s journey. During our Big Writing session on Thursday the child wrote their opening, with a focus on starting sentences in a variety of ways. Next week they will use another Big Writing session to write the middle of their story, and will have time in our final Literacy carousel of the week to write their ending.

In Maths we have been recapping and revising place value this week. The children have been ordering and comparing numbers, demonstrating their knowledge of the value of each digit. Next week we will be moving on to fractions, using shapes and objects to identify halves, quarters and three quarters.

During our Topic lessons this week we have completed our Science unit about identifying animals. We looked at the differences between birds and reptiles, as well as fish and amphibians. We finished the week by going on a mini-beast hunt around the school grounds so that children could identify various insects and creatures that live in our immediate surroundings. They used a tally chart to record their data, then transferred their findings on to a block graph.

Next week we will be making our very own Super Bugs! The children will be designing their own fictional bug that can be created using plastic bottles, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and various other materials. This is always a fun and popular unit in Year 1, we can’t wait to get a little bit messy!

It has been great to see in the Reading Records this week that a number of children have been practising phonics games online using the links from our class web page. Not long to go now until our phonics screening check, so please do continue to encourage the children to practise their phonics as much as possible… it’s definitely working!